


This isn't a Meet Cute Because We're Already Friends

by ermengarde



Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-26 07:24:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21370366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ermengarde/pseuds/ermengarde
Summary: For the prompt: Mikey Way/Ray Toro - Date nightReal life isn't like the movies, and every day isn't romance (but then, romance isn't love).
Relationships: Ray Toro/Mikey Way
Comments: 16
Kudos: 44
Collections: No Tags Fall 2019





	This isn't a Meet Cute Because We're Already Friends

**Author's Note:**

> MCR CAME BACK. THEN THE LOVELY NOTAGS MODS GAVE US A PLACE TO HAVE SOME FEELINGS IN. I LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS BAR.

When Mikey thinks back, he can't remember actually meeting Ray... Ray was just a part of the scene, Gee knew someone who knew Ray and introduced them and then Ray was just a part of that mess of Gerard's collaborators, hanging around in their kitchen or Gee's basement, writing music, shooting the shit, just... hanging out. 

Mikey wishes he could remember, wishes that they had a meet cute story, or a tale of eyes meeting across a crowded room, or... just something special. _Ray_ is special, but he's part of their every day, everything is already routine - Mikey can't surprise Ray any more, because, well.. they've been stuck like glue to each other, living in vans and studios, and a hundred cramped backstages from long before they were anything more than friends. 

Fuck, even their first kiss... wasn't. Mikey tries to think back, but he can't untangle the last kiss of over-excited happy post show adrenaline from the first one that meant MikeyAndRay. 

He's tried explaining to Gerard, but Gee just asks about the first time they made out, then goes all red in the face and starts rambling on about how Ray's the best guitar player on the planet (he _is_ but that's so far from the fucking point). 

Mikey wasn't sober the first time they made out. It's blurry 'round the edges, and he doesn't want _that_ to be their special moment. 

It's like a shard of bacon stuck in his teeth; Mikey worries away at it, trying to work out his special Ray moment any time his brain's not needed. In Walmart, while he's trying to find the good shampoo for Ray, he's so distracted that nearly trips over Frank, who's crawling around by the cleaning stuff.

"What the fuck, Mikey!" Frank looks kinda pissed

"Uhhh..."

"First you burn cheese all over the toaster oven, then you kick me while I'm getting stuff to clean it off." Frankie glares at him.

"Sorry." Mikey is sorry. He was making Ray pizza things on the top of english muffins and he'd misjudged the cheese quantity. Fucking Pinterest was fucking useless.

Frank humphs at him and goes back to looking at the 8 bazillion cleaning products that Walmart stocks. It's late, or early, or...something, it's hard not to be hypnotised by the glaring store lights and the endless shelves of fucking _things_. No one needs this much choice. MIkey resumes his mission for shampoo, Ray's back on the bus, working out some riff that Gee's had stuck in his head for days, and Mikey knows that he's nearly out and that motel shampoo - when it's there at all - is mostly like fucking dish soap.

There are only two bottles of the shampoo left, so Mikey picks up both of them; he can't figure out if they're just shit a keeping the shelf stocked or if the line's been discontinued, and he's not willing to risk it. He'll text Pete later. Pete can always find out shit like that on the internet. 

Mikey's trying to find his way back out of the store, he got turned around by the laundry shit and now he has no fucking clue where the front door is, and he's sure that he's seen that display of Downy before. He's pretty sure that the bus won't leave without him, but it's kind of rude to make everyone wait, Mikey heads towards a brighter looking section... If he can't get out from there then he's going to have to call Worm.

_My Chem Bassist Rescued from Store_.. There have been shittier articles written about Mikey, but not really since he got his head on straight. He eventually makes it out of the endless serried ranks of fabric softener and things you put in the drier to.... fuck if Mikey knows, mom never used any of this shit. 

The brightness he'd seen resolves into some kind of picnic display, all fake grass and cutesy shit. The way they've set it up though... that fucking.... it fucking looks like some kind of movie date. Not like, take a date to a movie, but like the dates they have _in_ movies. Mikey checks to see that no one can see him, checks to see that there's no one there, no one who can put two and two together and rag on him for wanting to re-create all those fucking lifetime movies he's seen at mom's, or when he's had a quiet moment in a motel with cable. No one can fucking prove anything. 

those movies are predictable, and soothing. Nothing permanently bad ever happens in them, and they don't need too much brain. Plus they're full of special fucking moments, like the one he wants with Ray. 

Mikey sidles towards the picnic blankets and reaches out. They're surprisingly soft, and they make a kinda crinkling noise, like there's plastic on the back. He grabs four.

It takes a lot of finagling, but Mikey is nothing if not completely sneaky, and Worm is always good for helping if you bribe him. Ray has no idea what Mikey has planned. 

Being on tour is ridiculous and exhausting and Mikey still sticks by his theory that it's kinda like being a werewolf. How the actual fuck anyone ever remembers where they are, what day it is, or when it's time to shower is completely fucking beyond him. He does know that there's a motel break coming up soon, though. They're there for three days... Or, well, two and some hours, and Frankie has been counting down the minutes since they were in their thousands because Jamia is joining them when they get there. 

It's a shitty motel, but it's clean and it's cheap and it has parking for the busses - and it's far enough from the venue before and the venue after that none of their fans are likely to find them there. Plus the wallpaper turns out to be epic and the showers are big and old fashioned with enough water pressure that they're kinda like waterfall showers. Mikey takes the first shower - works out how to set the temperature and pressure so it's just right. He sets a new bottle of Ray's shampoo up on the counter, waiting for him, before he leaves the bathroom.

Ray always takes his time in hotel and motel showers, at least when the water's pressure's stronger than a whisper, so Mikey knows that he's got some time to get shit sorted out. The motel room has twin beds - and he's not fucking moving them after the last time. This motel _looks_ clean, but exposing what's been hidden under the furniture is not a mistake you make twice... He still sees that carpet in Illinois in the dark of the night sometimes and that had been eight billion years ago. Mikey shudders as he unzips his bag. _Never look under the furniture_. It's not like Mikey's ever been clean freak or anything but _seriously_.

The picnic blankets make the coolest cosy little den between the beds - he layers the blankets and pillows between two of them so it's super soft, and the plastic backing stuff makes them stiff enough to make a stable roof. The twinkle lights he found on clearance give just enough light to be welcoming. He sets up the playlist he's been curating for days and lays out the snacks he bought. They're all shelf-stable and kinda unhealthy, but he picked up dates and the fancy kind of nuts, so... it's a crappy kind of picnic in a crappy kind of place, but it the best he can do right now. Mikey sighs. It's not as good as he wanted, not as good as Ray deserves. 

He startles a little when Ray says. "Hey MikeyWay, you made us a den?" Ray sounds.... fond, sounds that way that makes Mikey feel warm and cosy inside. 

"Yeah....Ummmm." Mikey starts to try and crawl out, but he has to stop because Ray is climbing in. 

"Oh!" Ray smiles at him. "Is this a date, Mikey?" Ray points at the box of belgian chocolates on the top of the pile of food and sodas. 

"Yeah." Mikey smiles back at Ray, because, well, it is. It's their first date and it's cosy and lit with twinkling lights and Ray's hair might be wet, but they're both clean and comfortable and there's no one else here. It's not quite like the movies, Mikey thinks, as Ray pulls him close and starts kissing him. It's better.


End file.
